The L71 Bear Guide!

[Zeus]

Hello, STS Community,

Lately, I've been quite busy, so this guide is a work in progress. For now, I will just mention the essentials of the L71 Bear until I have time to perfect the guide with every single bit of information you will need to know.

IMPORTANT TIPS:

First off, please know this & repeat it in your head until it is embedded in your memory: Build isn't everything and neither is combo.

Secondly, PLEASE, do NOT wait on a skill to get off of cool down. You're wasting valuable time relying on a skill. If you want to win, never rely/wait on a skill, as there's always another skill that can be used and perhaps better than your original plan.

Thirdly, MOVE with your slashes/stomps/pins/beckons. As you practice bear, you should learn which direction a slash will take your opponent. Soooo, use it and then be in that spot before they are so you can batter them some more. A bear that can move with his/her slashes (What I call dancing/tangoing) is a highly skilled bear that knows what he/she is doing.

Fourthly, Walls & Trees are your friends against birds and mages. It can also be used against bears but keep in mind that since bears can stun to, it can be used against you. Practice at pinning bears to trees/walls as well as if you get good at it, it is a viable strategy to defeat your opponent.

YOU SHOULD NEVER BE JUST AUTO ATTACKING. There is ALWAYS a skill to use off of cooldown, but use it wisely. There is a difference between skill spam and wisely using skills fast & efficiently.

Note: I myself do not use any specific combo, but use the skills based on what is needed for that specific situation. As you play bear more, you will slowly realize what skills would could be best used in certain situations.

Build:

• 7 Rage
• 7 Iron Blood
• 7 Evade
• 7 Taunt
• 7 Beckon
• 7 Hell Scream
• 7 Crushing Blow
• 7 Stomp
• 7 Super Mega Slash
• 6 Vengeful Slash
• 1 Crippling Slash (Do not underestimate this slash, it can root your opponents which can do one of two things:

A. Enable you to escape their pin and recover.
B. Set you up to land some debuffs and serious damage.)

Skill Build: (Picture Version)




Skill Map:






General Combos: (Please note, I did say general. As you practice PvP more and more, you will notice that sometimes the combos do not apply and instead, there is a skill that could be better in that situation.)

• Starter Combo vs. Bears/Birds/Mages (You usually use this at the beginning of a fight)

Beckon, Scream, Crushing Blow, Stomp, SMS, Vengeful, Cripple (hold cripple until you can run in and pin them with it)

*NOTE: If you can, try to pin them against a tree or wall, especially mages. You NEVER want to beckon/stomp a mage away unless they are pinned to a tree/wall and the stomp won't send them flying away from you. Once you lock onto a bird or mage, you DO NOT let go unless you're about to die yourself, then in that case: STOMP, SMS, VENGEFUL to fling them back and give yourself time to recover (regen).

• Knockback Combo vs. Bears/Birds/Mages (Most often used to fling them back to allow yourself to recover. It can also be used as a killing blow if beckon is on cool down.)

STOMP, SMS, VENGEFUL (generally works better if you have landed at least one crushing blow on the opponent and the debuff is still in effect) However, it seems that the combo has a higher chance to hit through dodge in my experience.

• Stun Combo vs Bears/Birds/Mages (If you do not have beckon at the time, run up to HS/STOMP, then get close to pin them with crippling and the rest of your slashes.)

Beckon, Scream, Crush, Cripple, Stomp is the stun combo. Notice how I stomped after? That's because of the cripple range (only 3mm). Typically, if you're not fast enough, Cripple will not land after stomp, even though stomp has a slight delay before knock back. (You are welcome to switch cripple and stomp around, as sometimes I can land cripple after stomp.)

Follow through when fully pinned with Vengeful and SMS.

Familiarizing yourself with your skills & their effects:

Beckon: Pulls your opponent(s) to you, can also stun in the process. It creates a "COMBO" with the skill: Stomp. It also has the longest range of any bear skill, 12mm.

Stomp: Can be used to create a "COMBO" if beckon is used & lands on the enemy before using stomp. It also has a knock back effect, stun effect, and hit percent debuff effect. The hit percent debuff effect is indicated by your opponent having a cloud of YELLOW smoke near his head with his head revolving/DIZZY EMOTE. It is quite similar to the fart emotes, except the smoke is yellow. It has an 8mm range.

Note: If you see the yellow smoke, your enemy is disorientated and low on hit percent. What does this mean? ATTACK!!! Without hit percent, your enemy will have little chance of his skills landing. (Does not apply to Pure Dex birds & some classes of mages, as their hit percent is 150+, something the debuff cannot bring below 100.)

Super Mega Slash: This skill has a 100 percent knockback effect & can be used with Stomp or Vengeful Slash to create a "SUPER" knockback. This can be useful if you need to get your enemy away from you so that you can recover. It also is the highest damaging slash. When beyond L2, it has a proc which takes off -10+ armor. This slash has a 4mm range and takes the second longest out of the three slashes to get off of cooldown.

Vengeful Slash: This also has a knockback effect, although not always 100 percent. As skill rank increases, so does the knockback pro. It is the second highest damaging slash. It has a 4mm range and quickest cool down out of the three slashes. I like to use this as a DPS slash.

Crippling Slash: This slash has the shortest range, only 3mm. It is perhaps the most useful slash though, IMO, because of it's ability to root the target. What does this mean? If you have your target pinned, you can leisurely debuff and do insane damage on him! This slash has the longest cooldown of the three slashes and least amount of damage, so use it wisely.

Hell Scream: This skill does not do any damage, but has insane debuffs. It can stun your enemy for 1-2 seconds and reduce their hit percent. It has a 8mm range. It is also able to stack, if you can use it off cooldown the second time quick enough.

Note: If fast enough, you can use HS and Stomp at the same time and if stomp procs, you can create an insane hit percent debuff, leaving your opponent pretty much unable to defend himself!

Crushing Blow:
This skill is an AMAZING skill. It can reduce some serious dodge and damage, not to mention the fact that is is unhealable! What does this mean? Mages can't remove it's debuff, so it will always last the full debuff. The downfall is this: Only a 3mm range, so use it when your opponent is pinned or close enough to you. :/

Taunt:
This skill is a buff skill. It raises your dodge. It can also be stacked, if used twice, to get the double the dodge. If you want to maintain the stacking effect, you need to use it AS SOON AS it's off of cool down. I HIGHLY recommend you do so, as this skill can GREATLY increase your chances of survival.

Rage:
This buffs up your damage & crit. Pretty basic buff, no secrets behind it.

Iron Blood:
This buffs up your armor. Only secret about this is that it has a long cool down (20 sec.) and it has a delay before activating (~1-2 seconds). So make sure after you press the skill that it is activated before entering the battle!

Evade:
This skill greatly increases your dodge. Again, there is not much of a secret behind it.

Ideal Gear:
To fully utilize the power of a bear, I highly recommend the Sand Walker Strength Set (Sand Walker Helm, Sand Walker Tiki Crusher, Sand Walker Plate, Sand Walker Drum/Shield). It is a 4 piece set with great damage, dodge, and armor.

Ring:For bears, I prefer to use the 2 hit 10 damage ring.

Vanities: Any dragon vanity set or Persistence set should do, but you can be an amazing bear without either of the two.

My Character, Zeus:


Will update with pictures/more information when I get the chance, this is merely the preview.